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Allen on NRA's memberships, Biden meeting

POLITICO LIVE: Assault weapons ban: political future?

NRA CEO rails against video games, media

The National Rifle Association doesn’t want new gun laws. And Wal-Mart sells a lot of guns, and has a lot of gun owners for customers, so the retail giant doesn’t want to look too close to the White House’s anti-gun push either, one source familiar with the company’s stance said.

“Gun sales are going through the roof after the shooting. It’s one of the fastest-selling items right now,” the source said. Wal-Mart wants to be helpful to the White House, but “when it contradicts sales, that’s where it stops.”

Wal-Mart spokesman David Tovar disputed the source and his claim. “We have been and continue to be very engaged in the discussions as the administration and Congress work toward a consensus on the right path forward,” Tovar said. “We are prepared to comply with whatever the law says.”

Behind the scenes, the kind of negotiations that lead to big deals that can get through Congress, like the wheeling and dealing that made Biden a kingmaker on the fiscal cliff, haven’t even begun on gun control.

Just getting the parties to the table was a challenge. The NRA was not invited to a meeting with Biden until Friday, after the vice president already began meeting with other groups. Wal-Mart originally said it couldn’t make it.

And Biden’s meeting with the NRA might get awkward since Richard Feldman, a former gun lobbyist who wrote an NRA tell-all, will also be there.

All of this has left even staunch supporters of gun reform laws pessimistic that a big deal will head through Congress, even after the mass shooting in Newtown, Conn., last month that left 20 children dead.

“I hope a tragedy like this one will get more and more people who’ve kowtowed to the gun lobby to rethink that, but it’s hard to be very optimistic,” said former Rep. Mike Barnes (D-Md.), who duked it out with the NRA as head of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence in the early 2000s. “It’s very hard to see anything meaningful passing in this House of Representatives.”

President Barack Obama said after the shooting that he wanted concrete proposals in front of Congress by mid-January.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said the administration still has high hopes for the meetings. “I don’t want to and the president doesn’t want to prejudge the actions of organizations or groups who are stakeholders in this discussion,” Carney told reporters Wednesday.

But the White House is also pushing alternative ideas. Biden said Wednesday that the White House will take a look at executive orders it can use independent of Congress. “We are not going to get caught up in the notion that unless we can do everything, we’re going to do nothing. It’s critically important that we act,” Biden said.

And on Tuesday, the White House started reaching out to foundations not usually associated with gun control to drum up support for reform in new advocacy corners.

The outside approach makes sense. More than half of the members of the 113th Congress in the House have been given an “A” rating by the NRA.

And Democrats remember what happened after they passed the assault weapons ban in 1994: They lost the House.

Readers' Comments (283)

Obama needs to stop using these deaths to push his anti-American agenda. Asa Hutchinson is the former Administrator of the DEA, US Under Secretary for Border & Transportation Security. Asa Hutchinson is now leading the "NATIONAL SCHOOL SHIELD PROGRAM".

Obama needs to stop using these deaths to push his anti-American agenda.

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Such an ignorant post so let's help you.

What is un-American is the stance the NRA makes under the guise that it is the voice of the people when, in fact, they are simply the gun manufacturer's lobby mouthpiece and are only the voice of some of their 4 million members. Real hunters are against the AR-15. Idiots love it.

Get ready for some great changes in America. the 2nd amendment will hold fast but my damn neighbor won't have the right to own high capacity magazines or be able to reload his shells.

Better yet - help the deficit - make insurance mandatory if you own a gun. Period.

What pharmaceutical drugs were the Sandy Hook killer, Adam Lanza, and the Gabby killer, Jared Lee Loughner, taking for their mental illnesses? ...................... Why isn't Obama meeting with these pharmaceutical companies? .................... Results were very low for Biden and those that make violent movies. ..................... Biden is not even meeting with the video violence makers. .................... Today's media is now using the military's Pavlovian conditioning techniques that overcomes a person's aversion to killing. .................. Lt. Col. Dave Grossman updated Pulitzer Prize nominated book "ON KILLING" now also includes school violence along with the military's killology method. ...................... Why isn't Biden meeting with Grossman?

Ole crosseyes is just plain ignorant, he cant help himself, You can see that he is an independent, you know independent from reasonable thinking, independenten from logical thinking, independent from thinking anything other than what The NRA and the repuglicans/Fox/ Rove/Limpb tell him to think. Well it could be worse, he could have been honest and put PARTY:..Teatardlican but then we would know for sure.

Get ready for some great changes in America. the 2nd amendment will hold fast but my damn neighbor won't have the right to own high capacity magazines or be able to reload his shells.

My201k

CS Lewis had people like you pegged, poster........

Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victim may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated, but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

The left is fund raising over the dead bodies of this tragedy.....The pols are taking advantage of this tragedy as well.......Progressives once again show their primitive human instincts to use fear and demagoguery instead of reason and intellect to impose their world view on the rest of us.......

Press conferences, fund raising, new laws, screaming speeches, rallies, web-sites, etc.......I prefer the quiet dignity of those who know there are liberties that cannot and should not be infringed no matter what the authority claims is best for the citizen........A hard concept for many non-thinkers to grasp.

Things are pretty clear folks. If you think the Gay and Lesbian lobby is strong or the Pro-Choice lobby or AARP or any number of other lobbies are strong, you don't know NRA stong. With more guns legally owned in America than there are people, there isn't a hope in hell that any serious or significant gun control laws will even get to a floor vote in either house of congress.

Politicians aren't stupid, and they clearly remember or will be reminded that the Democrat party and liberal Republicans were decimated in 1994 following the adoption of Clinton's assault weapons ban. There's a very good reason the bill wasn't renewed in 2004 - politics.

The assault weapons ban in 1994 was about ten years in the making and came from outside government in the main part. Considering the total lack of trust most on the right have for this President, there's no chance anything on guns proposed by him will get anywhere.

#7 Jan. 10, 2013 - 5:35 AM EST Things are pretty clear folks...........That they are..BUT your thinking isnt...time will tell.. who will blink. who will win and who will lose..the 2nd amendment will hold fast.. no-one disputes that...but as you sign your posts, you are more interested in Stagnation than moving FWD and this country is moving FWD wether you like it or not........

Obama always has a finger on a red button which can ignite a nuclear nightmare around our world. Obama is in possession of the most dangerous weapons of all time. Obama has in his hand an ability to kill every single living thing on earth.

Why was Obama not subjected to a strict and full background check along with extensive psychological testing?

Hell, we still don't know if Obama has quit smoking or not. We don't know much of anything about him.

Should we really be trusting an American president with so much power to destroy our earth?

Well yeah! Discussions about removing Americans second amendment rights will be going nowhere in this country!! This is not going to happen!!! It is a mental health issue and not a gun control issue! The mentally ill and the criminals do not obey gun laws or new gun laws!! Be put on notice Obama and Biden any other political hack!!

My201k What is un-American is the stance the NRA makes under the guise that it is the voice of the people when, in fact, they are simply the gun manufacturer's lobby mouthpiece and are only the voice of some of their 4 million members. Real hunters are against the AR-15. Idiots love it.

Get ready for some great changes in America. the 2nd amendment will hold fast but my damn neighbor won't have the right to own high capacity magazines or be able to reload his shells.

The word HUNTING is NOT in the second amendment!!! And it will take all 50 states and the voters to make any changes! Not going to happen!!!

# 12........Why was Obama not subjected to a strict and full background check along with extensive psychological testing? Hell, we still don't know if Obama has quit smoking or not. We don't know much of anything about him. Should we really be trusting an American president with so much power to destroy our earth?........................................... I'm a bit lost about what to think about this post, You know he is a muslim, was born in Kenya, is not white... What more do you need to know? Did BUSH not have those powers? did he not use said powers? wel we know he was bad and we know Obama is Good.. Know enough I say..